Catholic groups win permanent injunction against Affordable Care Act

PITTSBURGH — Groups affiliated with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh and the Erie Diocese were granted today a permanent injunction against the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate, after government attorneys conceded that they have no new evidence to offer in defense of the rule.

The concession prompted U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Schwab to change his temporary injunction in the matter to a permanent one, which could push the argument into an appeals court.

Attorney Paul “Mickey” Pohl, representing the Catholic organizations, filed a motion today seeking the permanent injunction. U.S. Department of Justice attorneys then filed a notice confirming that the judge has already found in the Catholic groups’ favor, and that they did not oppose ending the case.

“In doing so, defendants in no way suggest that they agree with plaintiffs’ characterization of the issues raised in these cases,” the federal attorneys wrote. “Defendants respectfully reserve all arguments stated in their oppositions to plaintiffs’ motions ... for the purposes of appeal.”

Judge Schwab closed the case. An appeal would go to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The diocese-related charitable organizations sued federal agencies and officials because they do not want their insurance administrators to be required to provide what they call “preventive services” coverage.

The injunction allows them to continue to offer insurance that doesn’t include contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs. Without the injunction, the insurance administrators for the organizations — though not the dioceses themselves — would have had to start providing the coverage Jan. 1.

Failure to provide the coverage could have otherwise resulted in fines that the diocesan organizations claimed would total millions of dollars a year.

The judge wrote last month in his 65-page opinion granting the temporary injunction — now permanent — that he was ruling on whether “the government will be permitted to sever the Catholic Church into two parts (i.e., worship and faith, and ‘good works’) — in other words, whether the government will be successful in restricting the Right to the Free Exercise of Religion as set forth in the First Amendment to a Right to Worship only.”

Block News Alliance consists of The Blade and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Rich Lord is a reporter for the Post-Gazette.